Sorry for the lack of posts recently folks, Black Tar has been busy toasting the resurrection with cheap cider and sketchy takeaways. Thankfully for us all Josh T is back with another sleaze-ridden tranq-funk beat that is perfect for deck chair cocktail parties and late night decadence. We spoil you, we really do:

Well, this is a surprise: Death Grips release something vaguely accessible (!). Don’t worry, the trademark vitriol is still there in buckets, but the new track from the Sacramento doom mongers is their most accessible work yet. ‘I’ve Seen Footage’ reimagines the jumping rhythms of old school mainstays like Run DMC and Salt ‘n’ Pepa. Really.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Death Grips track without a healthy dose of paranoia. As you might guess from the title, ‘I’ve Seen Footage’ deals with police surveillance, something that has pervaded their recent output and seems like as good an indication as any of the lyrical content of The Money Store. Listen to it and download it for free below:

‘Shy bairns get nowt’ is something my mum used to say, and this message certainly ran true with Portugal. The Man who simply asked the legendary Wu Tang Clan producer, RZA, for a remix and lo-and-behold they got it. Not the most remarkable and exciting of tales, but RZA has certainly taken the task seriously, and loaded the track with a messy fuzzed- out vibe that morphs around a thick bass line and gloriously layered vocal lines. Thanks to the Fader for sharing.

When one-time Dilla favourite Guilty Simpson spits, “a lot of MCs got one style. Me? I got numerous” on ‘Fitta Happier’, he could easily have been talking about Geoff Barrow. Since resurrecting Portishead for the excellent Third in 2008 after more than a decade out of the game, Barrow has hit a rich vein of form. He co-produced The Horrors’ sophomore record Primary Colours, formed Beak>, and now, with the help of Invada co-founder Ashley Anderson and Portishead engineer Stuart Matthews, produced a hip-hop album fronted by 35 rappers over 41 tracks. Lyrically, all the boxes are ticked: sex, race, politics, money. Whether it’s attacking Obama’s shortcomings on Emilio Rojas’ venomous ‘Belly Of The Beast’ or Booty Brown of The Pharcyde lamenting the vicious circle of ghetto life on ‘TV Dreaming’, the rhymes hit hard.

Barrow is no stranger to the art of sampling, having used it to help define trip-hop in the early 1990s. That pedigree is palpable in the brass stabs of ‘Rock My Soul’, the punch drunk lurch of instrumentals like ‘You’re Gonna Be Sorry’, and the dialogue and sound effects littered liberally throughout. It all feels a bit too familiar, though. Criticising Quakers’ production for being too hip-hoppy may be the equivalent of complaining that Black Sabbath are too loud, or that Kraftwerk could use more guitars, but there’s simply not enough of Barrow’s own personality on show. Rather than mining the creative well that made his oppressive, nocturnal spin on hip-hop production so intriguing with Portishead, the beats sit heavy on the shoulders of the hip hop giants name-checked throughout. Even the format — 41 short tracks — recalls that of J Dilla’s Donuts or Madlib’s Beat Kondukta series.

Forget all the wordy bullshit, though; as one dialogue sample here articulates: “it sounds good and it makes me want to dance.” Quakers’ production may not push the envelope in ways a Portishead fan might hope for, but who really cares when the likes of ‘War Drums’ and ‘Jobless’ are so banging? As Frank Nitty insists on ‘Dark City Lights’: Turn it up.

After releasing a brilliant debut album in ‘Glass Swords’ last year, Glaswegian producer Rustie can’t seem to stop his flow of awesome output. And why would he want to? This time it’s in the form of a Radio 1 Essential Mix. The Warp and occasional Hyperdub representative turned this Good Friday mix into a pleasingly groggy bass swamp, with interjections of trademark Rustie power-dub, frivolous pop tunes and based hip-hop swag. All in all, a pretty apt way to start a long bank holiday weekend.

Director David Lynch released an acclaimed album of typically dark and skwed electronic music last year. Out of context it appears to be a strange development for the surrealist auteur, but it’s not that surprising when you consider that he’s been collaborating on the soundtracks to his film projects for years- the man has a clear and defined musical aesthetic. And indeed it was a very solid album that thematically and sonically felt very “Lynchian”. Yet it’s still disappointing that he seems to be distracted from the world of film, where he really is a unique and powerful creative force.

So with that in mind it’s an absolute pleasure to see that Lynch has directed the video to the title track of Crazy Clown Time. It’s a disturbing and incredibly atmospheric look at a particularly deranged party that’s laden with dark images of twisted Americana- classic Lynch in effect. And it features amongst other things; A voluptuous woman topless and masturbating, a punk lighting his mowhawk on fire, and a lot of flashing lights and running around in circles. So basically when David Lynch says it’s Crazy Clown Time you best believe things are about to get crazy.

Josh T is a beat maker from Leeds who crafts dark sultry grooves for the dance-floor. His beats ooze decadence, and ‘Got me Hangin’ is no exception. Centering around this shuffling rhythm, ‘Got me Hangin’ brings up images of neon futurism, late-night drives and dimly lit bars. Check out his soundcloud for more action: